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Pufferfish behind mystery undersea art

By The Yomiuri Shimbun

Posted:
08/19/2013 09:41:10 AM MDT

Updated:
08/19/2013 01:08:07 PM MDT

Pufferfish behind mystery undersea art

The mystery of the beautiful circular designs that sometimes appear on the sandy sea floor near Amami-Oshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture has been solved by a researcher and local divers. It turns out pufferfish have been creating the designs, called "mystery circles" by local residents. The team recently reported in the British journal Scientific Reports that marine pufferfish make geometric circles about two meters in diameter for reproduction purposes. Hiroshi Kawase, 47, chief scientist at Chiba prefectural Natural History Museum ...

Photo taken on June 5, 2012 shows a pufferfish, known as fugu in Japan, on a chopping board to remove toxic internal organs at a Japanese restaurant "Torafugu-tei" in Tokyo. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

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